Top 10 Countries With the Worst Teeth, Oral Health and Hygiene in the World

Sparkling white teeth may be the norm for TV and advertisements, but these top 10 countries with the worst teeth, oral health and hygiene in the world, will show you a different side of things.

Oral health is important for a number of reasons, but we pretty much all want to have pearly whites. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to oral health and hygiene and even if they do, it can be really expensive. For example, having to fill a cavity can be between $50 and $150 just for one tooth without insurance. Having insurance helps, but you still have to pay something. Just by the looks of it, it seems teeth and oral hygiene changes depending on where you go in the world. While teeth may not be perfectly straight and white, that doesn’t necessarily mean they are not healthy. Because oral health habits change in different locations, many people wonder which country has the best teeth? The answer depends on the criteria you’re comparing, but many argue that the Japan has the best teeth as far as health goes because the country has nearly 200,000 dental hygienists. Because Japan is so small, they likely have the best dental hygiene in the world. We dig deeper into the best dental health in the world in our list of Top 10 Countries With the Best and Straightest Teeth and Oral Health in the World.

As far as which country has the straightest teeth, you can bet that developed countries with more access to orthodontists will rank high on that list. Healthcare also plays a huge role into this because straightening teeth can cost as much or more than keeping them healthy. It’s better to have healthy teeth than straight ones. When it comes to teeth, the problems don’t discriminate based on race, age, sex, or socio-economic status. No one is immune from teeth problems. According to the World Health Organization, around the world, 60-90% of children have cavities while nearly 100% of adults have them.

Now that you’re a little closer to find out what country has the worst teeth in the world, we’ll tell you how we came up with our list of countries with the worst teeth, oral health and hygiene in the world. Well, perhaps the most common way of measuring the oral health condition of a large group of people (such as a country) is DMFT index. DMFT Stands for Decayed, Missing, Filled Teeth at the time of a dental examination. Finding the tooth decay rates by country was the best way for us to determine which countries have the worst teeth. The score for each criterion is summed up and an average is calculated for the entire population sample. So basically the DMFT score gives us, on average, how many tooth problems an individual suffers from the given population. The higher the DMFT score, the worse the condition of oral health and hygiene. DMFT is often calculated for children ages 5 to 15, and the DMFT index we used as a basis for our research was done on 12-year-olds. If you are interested in learning more about DMFT and how it is calculated, then you will find ample information on Malmö University’s website, a renowned university in Malmö, Sweden.

For this list of countries with the worst teeth, oral health and hygiene in the world we sought help from various websites, most notably, Country Oral Health Profiles, WHO oral health information systems and World Oral Health Report 2003 also published by the WHO. We basically looked at the DMFT index and found the countries with high DMFT ratings for the latest year for which the data was available. Then we went ahead and ranked them based on the DMFT score. As mentioned before, the higher the DMFT score, the higher a country has been placed in the list.

In this case, having a higher DMFT score is not a good thing however, as we are talking about top 10 countries with the worst teeth, oral health and hygiene in the world. 

10. Bosnia and Herzegovina

DMFT score: 4.2

Bosnia and Herzegovina is the country we are going to start off our list with. The country has a DMFT score of 4.2 which basically means that the kids surveyed for this reason had 4.2 teeth with problems, on an average. This is really high, if you count that kids that age generally have about 28 teeth without the wisdom teeth. It can be assumed from the DMFT score, that out of 28 teeth per person, a few teeth had problems that needed medical aid.

9. Croatia

DMFT score: 4.2

Two neighboring countries, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, have an identical DMFT score. Maybe there is a correlation between oral health and the territory.

8. Dominican Republic

DMFT score: 4.4

At number 8 on our list of countries with the worst teeth, oral health and hygiene in the world, we have the Dominican Republic. This Caribbean nation is well known for its beautiful beaches and extravagant resorts and golf courses. However, in this particular article we are more interested in the country’s oral health and hygiene. From the DMFT score, we can clearly see that the Dominican Republic is not in a favorable position. Of course, the ideal position would be to have a DMFT score of 0, but in the real world that is not going to be true for most countries. Thus, countries should aim to get their DMFT score as close to zero as possible.

7. Guatemala

DMFT score: 4.5

Guatemala is a Central American country, perhaps most well known for the ancient Mayan monuments scattered around the country. Also, the country is very well known for its coffee production. But the thing is, the DMFT score for this country is 4.5, this means the country could really use some boost in the oral health and hygiene department. Kids who underwent dental exams reportedly had more than 4 teeth with serious problems, and this is only counting permanent teeth which are supposed to last them a whole lifetime.

6. Bolivia

DMFT score: 4.7

We are half way through our list of top 10 countries with the worst teeth, oral health and hygiene in the world. And at number 6, we have Bolivia, a South American country. Bolivia is well known for the Andes mountain range, and the Amazon as a portion of Amazon forest is also inside Bolivia. But, we are more interested in the country’s oral health and hygiene, and having a DMFT score of 4.7 is really an alarming prospect. It means, the children surveyed for this purpose had almost 5 bad teeth on average.

5. Mauritius

DMFT score: 4.9

If you thought that having a DMFT score of 4.7 was terrible, then you will be absolutely appalled to learn that Mauritius has a DMFT score of 4.9. Basically, every child surveyed in Mauritius had about five bad teeth on average. That also means, that they had 23 healthy teeth, as we are only counting 28 teeth save the wisdom teeth. But, that is no consolation for having 5 bad teeth at the age of 12. Of course, adults are more responsible when considering health and hygiene, but these are permanent teeth we are talking about, and these children will basically grow up with fewer teeth than normal.

4. Gabon

DMFT score: 4.9

Gabon is a Central African country and is the only African country to make the list today. The thing is, sugar has been found to be the primary reason behind tooth decay and other problems, and in African countries, candies and sweets are not a priority for children. This is why most African countries have relatively low DMFT scores. Of course, these scores are nowhere near optimal, but in comparison things are good. Except for Gabon of course, as you can see that Gabon has a DMFT score of 4.9.

3. Ecuador

DMFT score: 5.2

The top three are always going to be the most important on any given list. Although, being on the list of countries with the worst teeth, oral health and hygiene in the world is not something any country would feel proud to be a part of, this is what the reality is and we are merely stating facts here. At number three, we have Ecuador,  a South American country with a pretty good economy and political climate. However, when it comes to oral health and hygiene the country is not in a very favorable position in terms of DMFT score. Although, it can be argued that DMFT score does not truly portray how bad or good the dental health condition of a country is, but it does give us a sample and that is all we are saying.

2. Cambodia

DMFT score: 5.5

We have now stepped into the top 3, and at number 2 of our list of countries with the worst teeth, oral health and hygiene in the  have Cambodia, a country in Southeast Asia. Cambodia is a well known tourist destination and vacation spot for the wealthy, but Cambodian dental health and oral hygiene is rather bad. Cambodia has a DMFT score of 5.5 meaning that the group of Cambodian children subjected to the survey on an average had 5.5 teeth that needed immediate medical attention or had already been removed or treated. Unfortunately, things will get only worse from here.

1. Grenada

DMFT score: 5.5

At the very top of our list we find Grenada, which is a very small country with slightly over a hundred thousand people and two islands. The thing is, they must be very fond of sugar in Grenada, as the DMFT score is 5.5. Because Grenada has such a small population, the DMFT score is going to translate perfectly for the entire population, especially kids. The DMFT score shows that on average, every kid surveyed for this purpose had more than 5 teeth with significant problems, and that means bad oral hygiene.

This concludes our list of top 10 countries with the worst teeth, oral health and hygiene in the world. Don’t forget to brush and floss!